The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has alerted candidates who sat for the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination of fresh plots by fraudsters to dupe them.

JAMB raised the alarm in its weekly news bulletin, released by the Head of Media, Dr, Fabian Benjamin, yesterday.

The board called on candidates to “jealously guard their UTME registration numbers and profile codes to avoid falling victim of this latest scam.”

Candidates “should know that what these fraudsters do is to take advantage of their naivety and subsequently obtain their registration numbers with which they print their Examination Notification Slips which contain the candidates’ phone number and other vital data.

“These fraudsters, then, use this information to send messages to same candidates, disguising as officials of the board or persons who have special information, access and capacity to inflate the candidates’ scores among other things.

“Their strategy is akin to that of a police officer, who is unmindful of the fact that he is wearing his name tag on his uniform and, when you address him by his name, he is surprised that you know his name.

“The Board urges candidates to see their registration numbers and profile codes as security data similar to the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) pin number which admits them to make a withdrawal from their accounts. The fraudsters use the information deprived of the examination notification slip printed, using the candidates’ registration number to open up a line of communication with candidates, to dangle the enticing offer of awarding them higher scores in the yet-to-be-released 2019 UTME results among other mouth-watering promises.

“This is fraudulent as they lack the capacity to do any of such.

“Candidates are, therefore, enjoined to disregard messages or calls from anybody claiming to have access to the board’s classified information.

“The board wishes to state emphatically that results of the 2019 UTME have not been released,” and also, urged the public, “particularly parents and candidates, to be wary of these dubious elements and disregard any overtures made by anybody touting their power or influence to inflate any candidate’s score. The board will make it public when the results are ready.

“As such, the channel through which candidates can view their results has been communicated to them. In the meantime, security operatives have picked up some of these nefarious characters and they are on the trail of others still at large.”